Local defense contractor faces $100,000 fine in set-aside fraud case

The second of two officials of a now dissolved local government contractor for NASA and the Air Force has been found guilty of conspiring to fraudulently obtain contracts.

Minda L. Moore, 39, could face a $100,000 fine and three years’ probation if U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rose accepts the plea and sentence agreed to by prosecutors and Moore’s attorney.

Moore on Tuesday in Dayton’s U.S. District Court pleaded guilty by superseding bill of information to one count of conspiracy to convert to her use or the use of another of less than $1,000 — a federal misdemeanor.

Moore’s attorney calculated her non-binding guideline sentencing range as zero to six months in prison. Rose ordered a pre-sentencing report and scheduled Moore’s sentencing for April 25.

Moore’s co-defendant, Nicholas T. Borton, was sentenced in August to three years’ probation and a $50,000 fine for his role in a conspiracy to defraud the United States government using a program meant to benefit service-disabled veterans.

Moore, the owner of KLSS and the affiliated KLSS Solutions in Beavercreek, had been charged with conspiracy to file false claims, making false statements and wire fraud.

She was indicted for unlawfully securing services contracts and subcontracts, including $1.4 million from NASA, according to court records.

Court records allege Borton and Moore — a Centerville High School, Miami University and University of Dayton graduate — fraudulently held out KLSS Solutions as a set-aside business qualified as a Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB).

The bill of information stated that between Jan. 1, 2013 and Feb. 26, 2015, Moore, Borton and others conspired so that KLSS Solutions could be “used as a subterfuge” to secure contracts and subcontracts.

Moore’s father, Michael Hook, a disabled veteran, was recruited to serve as a “straw man” in order for the contractor to continue to receive set-aside government contracts meant for disabled veterans after Borton’s father-in-law died, according to court documents.